sonicwfandomcom-20200216-history
A Troll in Central Park
| producer = | writer = Linda Woolverton Irene Mecchi Jonathan Roberts Stu Krieger Joss Whedon | starring = | music = Basil Poledouris | editing = Fiona Trayler | studio = Don Bluth Ireland Ltd. American Zoetrope | distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures | released = | runtime = 76 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = | gross = $71,368 }}A Troll in Central Park (released in some countries as Stanley's Magic Garden) is a 1994 American animated musical fantasy-comedy film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, creators of their previous animated films: Rock-a-Doodle, The Land Before Time (with Francis Ford Coppola), All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Secret of NIMH and An American Tail (with Coppola). It was released by Warner Bros. Pictures under their Warner Bros. Family Entertainment label on October 7, 1994. The film grossed $71,368 at the North American box office. The film features the voice talents of Dom DeLuise as Stanley, Cloris Leachman as Queen Gnorga, Charles Nelson Reilly as King Llort, Phillip Glasser as Gus, Christine Cavanaugh as Rosie, Hayley Mills as Hilary and Jonathan Pryce as Alan. It is the last Don Bluth film to star Dom DeLuise. Plot Stanley is a troll who has a magical green thumb with the ability to bring flowers and plants to life at a touch, which is forbidden in his home, the Kingdom of Trolls. When he is discovered doing so, the other trolls take him as prisoner to Gnorga, the queen of the trolls, who concludes that Stanley "gives a bad name to trolls everywhere" and demands that he be turned to stone with her dark thumb (which is also purple when it glows). At the behest of her consort King Llort, Queen Gnorga instead banishes Stanley to Central Park in New York City where, after a series of mishaps, Stanley hides himself in a cave under a bridge for safety. The next day, in a New York apartment, two young siblings named Gus and Rosie learn that their parents cannot take them to Central Park, because their father Alan has to go to court for an important case, and their mother Hilary has to attend the open house on Park Avenue. While left alone with their nanny, Maria, Gus takes Rosie to the Park himself. While playing with Gus's toy boat by the river, Rosie follows a butterfly to the bridge where she mistakes Stanley for her own stuffed toy. Following Stanley into the cave, she befriends him. Gus goes after Rosie, only for his toy boat to be accidentally smashed in doing so. After becoming surprised to meet Stanley and his crew of talking flowers, Gus tries to force Rosie to come home with him. Stanley then gets into an argument and struggle with Gus over Rosie, but it wasn't long before Rosie begins to cry, clearly for her need of a bottle of milk which the animals find in Gus' wagon and brought it to cheer her up. At the Kingdom of Trolls, Gnorga enjoys her amusement of Rosie's sadness on her crystal, but when she discovers Stanley happy in exile and his flowers entertaining Rosie with the “old soft pedal” dance, she became furious at not having her chance to turn Stanley to stone herself. Having also witnessed Gus' frustration towards Rosie and Stanley, she decides to have an advantage and creates a flood to drown them all by making Gus cry a gigantic flood of tears with an evil spell. But using his green thumb, Stanley enlarges Gus's toy boat which he restored back to its former self, turning it into a “dream boat” to save the kids, and they escape together. Soon after, Stanley shows the children his own ideals, depicted as a world of his own. Afterwards, they return to Stanley's hideout to get some rest. Determined to suppress Stanley herself, Gnorga sends a tornado to transport her and Llort to Central Park while it destroys the park and everything green on it. Meanwhile, Gus and Rosie woke from their nap and decides to get back home to their apartment. After finding Central Park in its damaged and creepy-looking self, the two kids are then chased by Queen Gnorga and King Llort, who are intending to use them as a bait for Stanley. Gnorga succeeds to kidnap Rosie, but Gus manages to escape her. He returns to the cave in the bridge and tries to persuade Stanley to help him. But Stanley, frightened by the reign of Gnorga, refuses and claims that his magic is no match for Gnorga's. Angered, Gus accuses Stanley of being too scared to fight Gnorga and tells him that he will never have a dream come true if he's too scared to fight for what he believes in. Gus leaves to face Gnorga himself, with the assistance of the flowers and animals who have turned their backs on Stanley for his cowardice. Arriving at the abandoned building where Gnorga and Llort are waiting for Stanley, Gus finds and frees Rosie from a kennel, while the flowers tied up Gnorga's dog with ropes before it could attack the kids. But seeing the children get away, Gnorga and Llort chase them out the building, leading to a battle. During the fight, Gnorga transforms Gus into a troll with his dark thumb, and Rosie falls into the chasm after her brother freed her and himself by turning Llort's feet along with his helmet to stone. Fortunately, Stanley appears on Gus' toy boat; now transformed into a flying boat with leaf wings, having already saved the uninjured Rosie. Then he steps forward and challenges Gnorga to a thumb-wrestling match. Stanley manages to win and plants roses all around Gnorga's body. As Stanley, Gus, and Rosie escape and celebrate their victory, Gnorga uses Gus's thumb to turn Stanley to stone. Gus' toy boat turns back to normal, sending Gus and Rosie falling through the open window and into their apartment room, while Stanley (in his statue form) lands on top of the nearby trash can, but survived the impact. As Gnorga declares her job done, the last of Stanley's power changes her into a rose bush. Then the tornado reappeared and sucked Gnorga, Llort, and their dog back to the Kingdom of Trolls in defeat, while Gus returns to his human form. The next morning, Gus, Rosie, and their parents visit Central Park, where Gus and Rosie place the petrified Stanley on a makeshift pedestal. Gus attempts to revive him with his instant-temporarily green thumb and appears to fail. As they prepares to leave, after a moment's pause of saying goodbye, he and Rosie turned back to find Stanley gone. Then hearing Stanley's whistle, the two kids looked up to see Stanley standing on the tree with his flowers; restored to life, and they are happy to see him. Stanley recreates Central Park and covers the entire city of Manhattan in vegetation and flowers. Back in the Kingdom of Trolls, Llort (who is now in control as a gentle ruler) reads a newspaper, depicting Gnorga as the “queen of posies,” and Stanley’s case being dismissed. As he laughs, he is once again bitten by Gnorga’s dog for insulting his own wife (much to his chagrin). After letting out a painful scream, and as the end credits began to roll, he is heard commanding the dog to stop attacking him (his repeated line that was heard in the film). Cast *Dom DeLuise as Stanley *Cloris Leachman as Gnorga *Charles Nelson Reilly as Llort *Phillip Glasser as Gus *Christine Cavanaugh as Rosie *Jonathan Pryce as Alan *Hayley Mills as Hillary *Kevin Michael Richardson as Generic Pansy *Jim Cummings as Boss *Mickie McGowan as Maria *Beau Billingslea, Paul St. Peter, William Bassett as Guards *Mary Kay Bergman as Snuffy *Frank Welker as Animals, Special Vocal Effects *Additional Voices: Mary Kay Bergman, Charlie Adler, Gregg Berger, Jerry Houser, Debi Derryberry, Jennifer Darling, Philip Clarke, Phil Proctor, Marcelo Tubert, Kath Soucie, Patrick Pinney, Dave Fennoy, Corey Burton, Peter Renaday, Mona Marshall, Sherry Lynn and Danny Mann Soundtrack | recorded = | venue = | studio = | genre = Soundtrack | length = 64:27 | label = Intrada Records | producer = Basil Poledouris, Tim Boyle, Shirley Walker | prev_title = | prev_year = | next_title = | next_year = | misc = }}The music for A Troll in Central Park was composed by Basil Poledouris, conducted by Poledouris and Shirley Walker and was performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra. Although a commercial soundtrack was not released alongside the film in 1994, a limited edition CD containing 15 tracks from the movie was made available on February 12, 2012, by Intrada Records as part of their Intrada Special Collection. The tracks were taken from the original digital session masters, with three songs written by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Norman Gimbel, David Zippel and Basil Poledouris ultimately omitted due to being permanently wedded to sound effects and dialogue from the film. Reception Box office The film grossed $71,368 in North America. It was Don Bluth's lowest-grossing film to date, though not his film to lose the most money overall. Gary Goldman has said the reason for this was that the film was released without any sign of promotion and its release was limited. He also stated that its distributor Warner Bros. did not have any confidence in the film. Critical reception A Troll in Central Park holds an approval rating of 17% with an average of 3.6 out of 10 based on six reviews from Rotten Tomatoes. TV Guide gave the movie two out of five stars and felt that the film's appeal was very age-limited, calling it "Pastel-pretty and cloyingly sweet," and that "A Troll in Central Park is strictly for the youngest members of the moviegoing audience." The A.V. Club wrote that A Troll in Central Park is "widely considered to be Bluth's worst film." In the July 2001 issue of his magazine ToonTalk, Don Bluth said that "the development of a story is like the development of a child in a womb; it takes time and it must be done right and building A Troll in Central Park, taught us this lesson, the hard way." Home media releases On January 10, 1995, Warner Home Video released A Troll in Central Park on VHS and LaserDisc in the United States and Canada. In the UK, the movie was released on VHS under the title Stanley's Magic Garden. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the film on DVD for the first time on February 19, 2002. Currently, a Blu-ray version of the film has yet to be announced. References External links * * * * * Category:1994 animated films Category:1990s American animated films Category:1990s comedy films Category:1990s fantasy films Category:1990s musical films Category:American films Category:American children's animated adventure films Category:American children's animated comedy films Category:American children's animated fantasy films Category:American fantasy adventure films Category:American fantasy-comedy films Category:Animated comedy films Category:Animated musical films Category:English-language films Category:Environmental films Category:Films about trolls Category:Films directed by Don Bluth Category:Films directed by Gary Goldman Category:Films produced by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman Category:Films set in New York City Category:Irish animated fantasy films Category:Sullivan Bluth Studios films Category:Box Office Bombs Category:Film scores by Basil Poledouris Category:Film scores by Shirley Walker Category:Musicals by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil Category:Films with screenplays by Linda Woolverton Category:Films with screenplays by Irene Mecchi Category:Films with screenplays by Jonathan Roberts (writer) Category:Films with screenplays by Joss Whedon Category:Films produced by Roger Corman Category:Films produced by Francis Ford Coppola Category:Warner Bros. Family Entertainment films